The star talks tattoos, nudity and breaking bread.
The Breaking Bad and The One And Only Ivan star on tattoos, nudity and healthy eating.
What’s the first thing you do when you get on set?
I usually hide from the production assistants so that they can’t get me into hair and make-up right away, and I can have my second cup of coffee peacefully [laughs]. They usually find me, though, and march me into the trailer.
What do you take on set with you?
I will always take my scripts with me, because I have my notes from going through it. [Your approach] always changes when you walk onto the set. Your senses are different. You see things that you didn’t imagine, and you can get lost. So I refer back to the script in order to remind myself, “Oh, wait a minute, I wanted to try a certain thing here.”
Do you eat a hot or cold lunch?
I am one of the rare actors who actually eats during dinner sequences. Most actors, I find, will push food around, and they’ll pretend, and they’ll take the smallest bite of something. I dive in. But if we’re not eating [in the scene], I’m very partial to what we call ‘French hours’: 10 straight hours, no break for lunch. You pass around munchies – nice, healthy snacks, but very small portions so it regulates your energy.
Any skills you’ve learned on set that you’ve used in real life?
Most of the skills that you learn for a character, you’re probably never going to use ever again. Like for Malcolm In The Middle, I learned how to roller-skate, and dance, and do twists and turns, and all kinds of roller disco boogie moves. I’ve never been on skates since. But I did spend three weeks, every single day, training to be able to shoot that episode. And then it’s gone.
What was your most embarrassing moment on set?
There was an episode of Breaking Bad where Walter White appears stark naked inside a grocery store. And so there I am, absolutely naked, walking around a grocery store, with all these background artists walking by me, and looking at me like, ‘Oh my God, this guy’s naked!’ and I have to just walk past them. I think the first thing I did to all those people was to make an announcement – a tremendous apology. “I’m sorry you have to be exposed to this. But no one is more over-exposed than I am.”
Best wrap party?
I think the Breaking Bad wrap party for the entire series was very monumental. It was both happy and tremendously sad. A lot of tears were shed. It was very emotional. Most people have photo booths or an ice cream van or something… We had a tattoo artist [laughs]. I was the first person to get a tattoo, and I have it on my inner finger. That’s the logo of Breaking Bad: the BrBa. It’s for me to see it from time to time, and go, “Wow, that show changed my life.”
How did compare to the average set?
The One And Only Ivan [The visual-effects component] was very challenging to some great degree, and then to some minor degree, once you got used to it. There were nine or 10 different animals in the movie. None of them were real. So all the while that I’m talking with Ivan, the gorilla, it almost seemed like it was a scene, but I was actually performing a monologue… At first, you go, “Oh my God, this is difficult.” And then you start to get used to it and it feels oddly comfortable.
Have you ever stolen anything from a set?
I stole the heart of a young actress 33 years ago, on the set of a television series called Airwolf. This was in the ’80s. And she became my wife all that time ago. Her name was Robin Dearden, and now we’ve been married for 30 years. MM
ETA | 14 AUGUST / THE ONE AND ONLY IVAN LAUNCHES ON DISNEY+ NEXT MONTH.
‘I AM ONE OF THE RARE ACTORS WHO ACTUALLY EATS DURING DINNER SEQUENCES’